Karne:Nah, the large car companies would buy legislation that would make printing cars illegal way before you would be able to do it.

Everyone was excited about printing guns...until this.

Link

Meh, the guy rented a very high end 3D printer, company he rented it from took it back because it got scared. Had they bought it, it wouldn't have been a problem. But buying such a high end printer is out of reach for this group, but not out of reach of all groups.

Karne:Nah, the large car companies would buy legislation that would make printing cars illegal way before you would be able to do it.

Everyone was excited about printing guns...until this.

Link

No legislation involved. The printer manufacturer leased the machine (not entirely uncommon with expensive machinery) and decided they didn't want to be even remotely liable for any bullsh*t this guy got up to. Mr. Print-A-Gun douchebag is still perfectly capable of buying a machine outright from any number of vendors, or building his own. There's no laws to stop him.=Smidge=

UNC_Samurai:The scary thing about in-home 3D printing will be if you want to print someone else's intellectual property, you'll likely have to pay a fee. I can see RIAA/MPAA types demanding 3D printer DRM.

Yes, the powerful plastic trinket and vintage knob lobby has the government in its pocket.

I think as it becomes a more common practice among kit-car guys to either buy 3d printers or buy parts from printing shops, more kinds of car designs will become available on the kit market. Among those will also be free models (Well, free as in you won't be infringing any copyrights. You'd still be on the hook for the parts).Making a decent car may not be rocket surgery, but you'd still benefit from having semi-professionals helping you.

Quantum Apostrophe:UNC_Samurai: The scary thing about in-home 3D printing will be if you want to print someone else's intellectual property, you'll likely have to pay a fee. I can see RIAA/MPAA types demanding 3D printer DRM.

Yes, the powerful plastic trinket and vintage knob lobby has the government in its pocket.

I'm trying to convince the sales types at work that we should get a 3d printer that can print in ABS, we sell plumbing and electrical supplies, so I am sure we could make a market for strange angled ABS pipe for wastewater, or cable armour with nonstandard angles. Or at the very least we could print out battery covers or our logo as a keychain.

Here is the difference: Dodge would likely gladly sell you the right to "print" one Dart for $10,000. That covers their R&D, designers, and marketing. You are using your own printers and labor, so you dont expect to have to buy the steel, plastic, and glass components from them.

The music industry, however, wants to charge you the same price for a downloaded song that you do one from a CD that was stamped, labeled, cased, bookleted, shrink-wrapped, shipped, held in a store, and sold at a counter by a clerk.

downstairs:Karne: Nah, the large car companies would buy legislation that would make printing cars illegal way before you would be able to do it.

Well it already is. It would be infringing on all sorts of patents and copyrights and trademarks.

Also, no one is going to give you insurance on a car you built yourself... so you're not going to be legally driving anywhere but private property.

A. You're not infringing patents, copyrights, trademarks, etc if you build a physical copy of something for personal use. These legal protections only come into play if you attempt to market, sell, or somehow make money off of your creation.

B. Yes, you can insure a custom-built vehicle. It happens all the time, usually with kit cars.

Spaced Cowboy:Rev. Skarekroe: I'll print it one piece at a time, and it won't cost me a dime!

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Approves.

Ken Thompson has an automobile which he helped design. Unlikemost automobiles, it has neither speedometer, nor gas gauge, norany of the other numerous idiot lights which plague the moderndriver. Rather, if the driver makes a mistake, a giant "?" lights up inthe center of the dashboard. "The experienced driver," says Thompson,"will usually know what's wrong."-Anonymous